Identification of Factors That Affect Software Complexity.

A survey of computer scientists was conducted to identify factors that affect software complexity. A total of 160 items were selected from the literature to include in a questionnaire sent to 425 individuals who were employees of computer-related businesses in Lawrence and Kansas City. The items were grouped into nine categories called system planning, system characteristics, system design, system testing, system documentation, system correctness, system clarity, programming style, and system management. Factor analysis and central tendency measures were used to analyze the data. Based on 147 respondents, 98% of the items were found to affect system complexity. Large item variance was attributed to the lack of formal education or experience of respondents in some areas of software development. The factors extracted in this study were found to be useful in regrouping items to determine the complexity of system attributes, system components, or of various phases of system development. The need for a weighting scheme to add component complexity to determine the overall system complexity was identified. It is suggested that replication of this study on a larger scale would prove useful and that the complexity of various system components be weighted to determine the overall complexity of the system. A list of references, a copy of the questionnaire, and factor matrices are also provided. (JB)